President Trump told Fox News friend Geraldo Rivera on Thursday that he did send Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to procure damaging information on his political rivals. "Was it strange to send Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine, your personal lawyer?" Rivera asked Trump on his podcast. "Are you sorry you did that?" "No, not at all," Trump responded. "When you tell me, why did I use Rudy, and one of the things about Rudy, No. 1, he was the best prosecutor, you know, one of the best prosecutors, and the best mayor.""That is literally the exact opposite of what he told Bill O'Reilly in an interview in November," CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale told Don Lemon on Thursday night, playing the clip where Trump said, "No, I didn't direct him," meaning Giuliani. "So what has changed now? Well, perhaps Trump just thinks impeachment's over with, I've been acquitted, I can say whatever I want. Perhaps he forgot that he ever denied this. Regardless, though, what he's saying now is the truth. He did direct Rudy to go there. We heard that not only from Rudy himself, but from testimony from others in the impeachment inquiry."CNN senior political analyst John Avlon, sitting on Lemon's panel, found Dale's second explanation more plausible. "The fact is, the president probably forgot that he lied," Avlon said. "This is what happens when you sort of live in a web of lies — occasionally you contradict yourself."Trump's admission he sent Giuliani means he's either "either emboldened after his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial or comfortable on the show of a longtime friend," suggests New York's Matt Stieb. But he wasn't fooling anyone to begin with. On his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Stieb notes, Trump told Zelensky that "Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great."More stories from theweek.com Trump's latest possible quid pro quo involves New York, airport travel, and his tax returns The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren Authoritarians aren't like Mao anymore. They're like Trump.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) visited President Trump on Thursday afternoon to try and negotiate the reversal of his administration's new ban on New Yorkers participating in the Global Entry and "trusted traveler" programs, which ease border crossings and airport security lines for enrolled travelers. Cuomo had low hopes, and they were met. The governor's office and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said talks will continue.Before the meeting, Trump floated what appeared to be an offer he hoped New York couldn't refuse. Cuomo "must understand that National Security far exceeds politics," he tweeted, an apparent reference to the administration's purported rationale for blocking New Yorkers from the programs. "New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harrassment [sic]." New York Attorney General Letitia James — who won a $2 million settlement from Trump over his canceled family charity and is suing him and his business on multiple fronts, including for his financial records — clapped back.> When you stop violating the rights and liberties of all New Yorkers, we will stand down. > > Until then, we have a duty and responsibility to defend the Constitution and the rule of law. > > BTW, I file the lawsuits, not the Governor. https://t.co/tsOLeEgiQp> > — NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 13, 2020House Democrats were disappointed but not surprised that post-impeachment Trump would try to evidently leverage the federal government for personal favors.> Dear @SenateGOP, > > This is what another quid pro quo by the President of the United States looks like. https://t.co/7E4PbxevBG> > — (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) February 13, 2020Trump is "expanding his abuse of power to blackmailing U.S. states," said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), one of Trump's impeachment prosecutors. "In this case, he's holding New York state hostage to try to stop investigations into his prior tax fraud.”Cuomo said if he and Trump can't make a deal, "then we have a lawsuit — and by the way, it's not just New York. There was a fascinating memo that was leaked from the Department of Homeland Security ... that laid out things that could be done to punish unfriendly states."More stories from theweek.com Giuliani claims he can 'prove' a 'Democratic scam' in Ukraine with iPad full of 'reports' he never actually shares 7 brutally funny cartoons about the Democratic primary fight Bloomberg vs. Trump would be a clash of oligarchs

Donald Trump has admitted sending Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to dig dirt on a political rival, openly contradicting his own denials on the subject during the impeachment inquiry, just days after being acquitted of all alleged crimes.Mr Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, is at the centre of a web of shadowy efforts in Ukraine to persuade officials to investigate the Bidens, questions around which were key to the abuse of power charge on which Mr Trump was impeached by the House.

Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to orchestrate a fresh quid pro quo just a week after being acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial.This time, the accusations come after the president offered to lift travel restrictions against New Yorkers in exchange for Governor Andrew Cuomo dropping investigations into his tax records.

Republican voters in retiring Rep. Mark Meadows’ (R-N.C.) congressional district received a curious, unsolicited mass text message recently warning them that Lynda Bennett, a candidate endorsed by the congressman’s wife, is a “Never Trumper” — and there was audio attached that claims to prove it.

"I’m never Trump. So now what?" a woman yells in the 45-second recording. "What are you going to do? Going to ask me to get out there and help Trump get elected? And you want me to help organize 100 people to come and work the polls to get Trump elected when I am not for him? I am against him — never Trump!”

Bennett, Meadows and her allies claim the tape is selectively edited, taken out of context from a meeting over three years ago where she was role-playing a Trump antagonist and distributed by rivals within the local GOP. But the circulation of the audio — which had appeared previously on some Republican-affiliated websites but had never been widely disseminated — is only the latest bizarre development in an unusually dramatic House primary next month that has splintered Republicans in western North Carolina.

The race itself has drawn national interest because of its connection to Meadows, one of the president’s closest congressional allies. And the insinuation that he is actively working to elect a candidate that may have publicly bashed Trump has added an extra layer of intrigue.

“It’s edited to make it appear that she’s against the president when she’s actually very much for, and I happen to know that,” Meadows said in an interview last month shortly after the message went out. “There is zero chance that my wife would have endorsed Lynda Bennett had she been even remotely against the president of the United States.”

Two days after the mass text, Meadows doubled down and endorsed Bennett himself over a field of a dozen contenders that includes a state senator and his former congressional district director.

Some local GOP leaders had urged the congressman not to endorse out of anger at the way he announced his surprise retirement just 30 hours before the state’s filing deadline. They quickly speculated that Bennett, a friend of the Meadows’, had advance notice of his exit and that the congressman timed his decision to help her — a charge that Meadows and Bennett deny.

Bennett’s ties to Meadows, his wife, Debbie, and her devotion to the president have become a prominent topic of discussion ahead of the March 3 primary that will extend into a May runoff if no candidate clears 30 percent of the vote.

So have the mysterious text messages, which baffled local party officials, who cannot determine the origin and scope of the message or the veracity of the audio tape.

“It’s caught some people off-guard, not knowing exactly when, where, who and what any motivation may have been,” said Aubrey Woodard, the 11th District GOP chairman. “It’s definitely a mystery. It certainly is. I don’t know if that’s to have an effect on her electability one way or another, but it’s certainly not something she wanted to have out.”

The texts were sent out from a D.C. area-code number around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, according to a survey of screenshots from five different recipients obtained by POLITICO. Those texts were all sent from different numbers, though all but one had the same exchange, (915). Attempts to call those numbers yielded an automated response that none were in service.

This account comes from interviews with a dozen people who live in or have connections to western North Carolina, including registered Republican voters in five counties across the district who all received the audio file via text. The message was also sent to the cell phone of a POLITICO reporter.

Accompanying the file is a text message: "Please listen to this audio from Lynda Bennett, GOP candidate for NCs 11th Congressional District, & hear where she stands on President Trump in her own words."

The audio is purportedly taken from a fall 2016 meeting of Haywood County Republicans, according to three people who were at the meeting. The discussion centers around palm cards — handouts given to voters outside polling locations that advocate for a slate of candidates.

Some Republicans wanted names of certain GOP nominees to be taken off the palm cards that would be distributed outside the polling location, according to Bennett and Ken Henson, the chairman of the Haywood County GOP, who was also present at the meeting.

Bennett said she advocated for the inclusion of all candidates, including Trump, but that the audio was chopped to suggest otherwise.

“They have cut off the beginning and the end, and they just grabbed this part out of the middle,” Bennett said in an interview this week. “I'm saying, ‘This is what I've been hearing,’ and then I mimic the 'Never Trumpers.'”

Bennett said she had been supportive of the president for years. The clip, she said, was “taken completely taken out of context” and was likely “a coordinated attack” from one of her opponents or an outside group.

Versions of the audio have been circulating among Republicans in the district. Monroe Miller, a GOP activist from Haywood County, said he created the original audio of the meeting and posted two unedited segments of it to his website this month, along with 11 pages of typed and handwritten notes and a diagram of the meeting room. But he denied coordinating any text message pushing out the audio to voters in the district.

Miller is a member of a local Republican faction, sometimes called the “Haywood Five,” that has openly sparred with the leadership of the Haywood County GOP.

He disputes Bennett's account of the meeting. Miller said he did not think she was imitating anyone and that he believed her to be opposed to Trump.

“This came out spontaneous,” Miller said of her “Never Trump” comments. “It’s pretty evident from the recording. She just went off, and I didn’t view that as role-playing.”

“She was very vocal,” he said. “Lynda was a very opinionated person.”

Some local Republicans suspect a candidate or outside group hoping to fracture the field along the lines of Trump loyalty— a key fault line in GOP primaries — coordinated the message, possibly by contracting a firm that offers peer-to-peer text messaging.

Candidates will have to file "pre-primary" campaign-finance reports with the FEC on Feb. 20, but it could be easy to disguise an SMS-texting payment as vague expenditure for consulting or another service.

The filing deadline will also offer a look at which candidates are the most formidable ahead of the Super Tuesday race. Without any public polling, it’s not clear if Bennett is even in the top tier of candidates. A dozen Republicans filed to run for the solid GOP seat, but only a handful have spent money on television advertising.

State Sen. Jim Davis, the only current state legislator in the race, is likely a frontrunner. Wayne King, Meadows' former district director, is also running, as is businessman Chuck Archerd, veteran Dan Driscoll and Madison Cawthorn, the survivor of a near-fatal car accident.

Bennett has two outside groups supporting her on the airwaves. Meadows cut a direct-to-camera TV ad for House Freedom Action, the political arm of the Freedom Caucus, in which he calls Bennett a "good friend" who will "work with President Trump to drain the swamp."

It’s possible that no member has yoked their fortune more tightly to Trump than Meadows, who said he is leaving Congress after four terms to serve in an as-yet-undefined role in Trump world.

The president notably gave both Meadows, his wife and the race a shout out in his post-impeachment victory speech last week at the White House.

“He’s just a very special guy,” Trump said, gesturing to Meadows. “His wife I actually like better than him, to be honest.”

He also asked Meadows about a possible successor: “You got somebody good to run? Somebody going to win your district by at least 20 points? Please?"

CBS News conducted a poll of New Hampshire Republicans who voted in Tuesday's primary, and found that a majority feel a greater allegiance to President Trump than the Republican Party.The results, released Thursday night, show that 55 percent of primary voters chose Trump versus 39 percent who picked the Republican Party.When asked to share their feelings about the Trump administration, 65 percent said they are "enthusiastic," 24 percent are "satisfied," 6 percent are "dissatisfied," and 5 percent are "angry." Of the primary voters who said they did not want Trump to get the GOP nomination in 2016, 62 percent said they still voted for him in the election. About 1 in 10 cast their ballot on Tuesday for someone other than Trump, with most supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld.When asked about Trump's impeachment, a majority of the Republicans said they think it will help him get re-elected. Read more about the poll at CBS News.More stories from theweek.com Authoritarians aren't like Mao anymore. They're like Trump. The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren House Republicans say stealing polling data through open blinds is kosher. Democrats say it's creepy.

Perhaps the most dangerous claim made during the Senate impeachment trial was the false assertion that the President can do no wrong, that he is above the law, and if it is good for his reelection, then it is good for the country. Make no mistake, no president is a king. That is not who we are as Americans.

Former national security adviser John Bolton defended his ex-colleague, former White House chief of staff John Kelly, after President Donald Trump belittled Kelly for comments backing an impeachment witness.